MBOMBELA – Twenty-one girls lined up to testify against the man and woman charged with 49 counts of rape and assault in the local Circuit High Court last week.
The accused allegedly raped and assaulted the nine- to 17-year-old attendants of their initiation school in Masoyi during August 2012.
Mr Johan Jabulani Mlombo and Ms Sister Mapalese Khoza shook their heads and repeatedly pleaded not guilty. Testimonies commenced via closed-circuit television after the judge, Mr JJ Strydom, warned both accused that a conviction on one of these charges and could impose a life sentence on the perpetrator.
The first witness, who is partially sighted, was 17 years old when she attended the initiation school operated by the two accused. She testified that those who attended the school were obliged to stay there for a minimum of three months. “My parents wanted to remove me from the initiation school, but Khoza refused.
“While we were there we had to fetch firewood and carry containers with water. I was the oldest and was told to fetch a big container filled with water. It was very heavy and I refused. This is when Khoza hit me. She used an initiation stick, called a lesothi, to hit me. Although you agree to certain things when attending an initiation school, the punishment that we received was not in a measure that we agreed to.” Khoza is accused of assisting Mlombo in raping his victims. The girl testified that Khoza took her from the corrugated-iron room where the girls slept and led her to a dark room. “She pushed me inside and locked the door. Mlombo was inside with a cup of water. I was told not tell what was going to happen.” The girl testified that Mlombo then raped her.
“Even if we wanted to leave, we could not, because we were told that we would go insane if we left. We did not want to go mad,” the girl testified.
The testimony of a 12-year-old girl, who clutched a teddy bear as she recounted what happened to her at the age of nine, was heard on Wednesday afternoon. Due to the traumatic nature of the procedure, she testified through an intermediary. “My aunt took me to the initiation school. It was on a Wednesday in August in 2012,” she said. “My aunt said that we were going to pick up a chicken for my gogo, but when we got there I realised that I was now going to initiation school. We were a group of girls and each of us had a number. I was ‘number two’.”
The girls were told of a “big initiation” that could take place on August 29.
‘Number two’ was called and Khoza directed the nine-year-old to a dark room. “I was wearing my skirt and covered myself with a blanket. I heard Mlombo’s voice instructing me to come to him. He instructed me to lie on the floor with my blanket and to remove my skirt. What I did was just to pull it up.” “He then sprinkled water on my body. He put his hands in water and started rubbing my vagina as one would use a crayon on a colouring book. It was hurting. I did not cry. After he rubbed, he said, ‘You are now finished.’ He gave me the water to drink and I went out of the room.”
